Skype

Skype is unbelievably convenient as a communications tool. Though I don't yet have any pressing need for it, I can see all kinds of possibilities for classroom and teacher use. Some schools, for example, have "sister schools" in other countries (particularly French, Spanish, German, Chinese classes) that classes could communicate with via Skype during class. Amazing. And FREE. Amazing.

I don't plan to rush out and buy video equipment, but I do plan to take a closer look at the Skype main Web site and see what kinds of tools and so forth are available.

Françoise did a great job presenting Skype!

Working with Photoshop

Thursday's Photoshop lesson was fascinating, as usual, but my brain feels like it's going to explode.

I particularly like the Layer Styles feature that allows me to separate a piece of an image and enhance it and then alter the background (darker, lighter, and so forth). I want to see if there is a way to outline several "stacked" parts of the image and manipulate each one in a sort of visual pyramid effect.

Freak Out with Photoshop!

This is a very frustrating piece of software, but SO cool. With enough time...wait, scratch that...

If I ever had time to work on this, I might actually be able to do some really cool stuff. I still like the idea of it, but it really is a question of time.

Lost in Photoshop

Hated to miss last week's class on Photoshop! I know I'm unbelievably behind now. If anyone feels led to offer some help, I'd be most grateful. I did poke around online a little to see if I could find out about using patterns. I did find one pretty cool site, but unfortunately the guy just goes too fast for me, and he assumes that the viewer already has a pretty good handle on Photoshop.

Photoshop

Ha! Who knew? Just think how the "Flip horizontal" feature could have helped Picasso!

I don't think I'm going to be able to hold out much longer on buying a decent digital camera. On the other hand, the idea of manipulating some of my old photos is very appealing. I can do montages of pictures from my various trips to France, for example, to show to my students.

Learning to create a blog

This is amazingly quick to do. I'm afraid I'll have to tell my husband about it, and then he'll want to do a barbecue blog and then a beer-making blog and then...Well, anyway, it's fast, so as long as he remembers to unload the dishwasher first, he can blog all he wants.

Go configure...

"Enter your username and password in the spaces provided. Don't forget to click 'Finished' when you're done."

Okay, but see, when I click "Finished," I get the wheel of misfortune. You know, that little black and white pie-wedge wheel that spins and spins and spins...and finally times you out.

"Enter your password." Okay.
"Re-enter your password." Okay.

"Enter your password." Well, I already did this, but if you say so.
"Re-enter your password." Ditto.

"Enter your..." Oh, for Pete's sake. Lemme just reboot...